Vote for Rudy, or You’re All Going to Die

by Bill Barnwell
Apr. 27, 2007

Let’s just be upfront, the most shameful exploiter of the 9/11 tragedies has always been Rudy Giuliani. While many politicians in both parties have used the attacks to justify their wars, their political campaigns, and their policies, Rudy owes his revived political career to the horrific strike against America on September 11th. While we should admire Rudy for his showing assertion and leadership on that fateful day, it does not give him a free pass to use the 9/11 dead as political talking points.

Giuliani’s level of fearmongering exceeded even that of the Bush administration, which is a tough feat. He finally crossed that line when he suggested that America would be more vulnerable to a terrorist attack if Democrats win in 2008 rather than the Republicans. And who out of all the many candidates will keep us safest from the terrorists? Rudy, of course.

A Democrat may or may not do a worse job than a Republican when it comes to national security in the next administration. Neither party has a really good track record in this area. But Rudy has some specific reasons he thinks the Democrats will do worse. He warns that if the Democrats win, "We will wave the white flag on Iraq. We will cut back on the Patriot Act, electronic surveillance, interrogation and we will be back to our pre-Sept. 11 attitude of defense."

Rudy, like most of his other Republican counterparts, links Iraq and 9/11. But more and more people are finally waking up and are realizing that involvement in Iraq is not making us safer. Rather it has been further emboldening terrorists and whipping up more resentment across the globe. To cut back from Iraq and let the Iraqis and their neighbors clean up their own messes would constitute "weakness" and "failure" in the Rudy mindset. In Giuliani’s mind, those who want to pry this albatross off from around our necks are sissies. But those who want to continue to give the government a blank check and permission to sacrifice ever so many human lives in the name of stabilizing crazy factions in Iraq are tough-guys and level-headed.

Giuliani also has a problem with those who respect civil liberties. Talking about civil liberties in a time of war is for cowards. As real patriots, we are supposed to just do everything Rudy tells us and let the government eavesdrop and torture whoever it wants in the name of "security." And not only are you a coward or a traitor if you don’t believe this same way, you are "enabling the terrorists" and opening the door to a new attack.

While it didn’t work in 2006, Republicans are hoping they can scare the daylights out of people enough in 2008 to get their votes. Democrats offer their own version of fear-based politics, though theirs usually focuses on domestic issues ("The Christian Right will convert all our children at gun-point after they take away their after-school programs if you don’t vote for us!). Both parties rely on the politics of fear on a regular basis. It’s just shameful for "America’s Mayor" to pretend he’s honoring the 9/11 dead by using their memories as a means to get votes and power.

Let’s also not forget that if there was never that awful attack on America, there would certainly be no candidate Rudy. On September 10th, though popular in some circles, he was widely despised by many across New York City and America. His approval ratings were plummeting. The previous year he pulled out of his Senate race with Hillary Clinton. While he said he was mainly pulling out to receive cancer treatments, don’t think his then recent publicity about his nasty divorce and poor internal poll numbers against Clinton didn’t play a larger part. It was only when news broke about him leaving his wife and her hiring a high profile attorney did Giuliani drop out from the race.

Do we really think Rudy would have stayed out had he thought he could win? He did, after all, continue serving as the mayor of New York City after he revealed he had an easily treatable form of prostate cancer. It wasn’t as if he stepped down from public life; just what looked like it was going to be a very nasty campaign. If he thought he could have won or wouldn’t have had too much personal information revealed he would have stayed in that race.

After 9/11, however, most people forgot about Rudy’s controversial style of governance. They forgot about his tawdry personal life that had now spilled over into the public. Now, he was a "hero." It wasn’t long before talk of Rudy running for President some day starting circulating across political circles. So in a very twisted sense, 9/11 might have been one of the best career opportunities Rudy Giuliani ever received.

Almost six years later, Rudy is still trying to milk 9/11 for all it’s worth. And he knows that with traditional Republican voters, he is nothing without the 9/11 card. He knows that people can be scared enough into voting for him, even though many of his positions are more in line with liberal thought. Republicans and even many staunch social conservatives will overlook all that as long as they are sufficiently scared. Rudy would have no shot in getting their votes if it wasn’t for fear.

Whatever past and present shortcomings Rudy has, both ideologically and character-wise, he hopes everybody will all look past because of 9/11. Rudy, even more so than the Bush administration, has become a one-trick pony. The only thing he has going for him is that people think he’s "tough" and can keep us "safe." That’s his trump card.

Giuliani and his supporters think that those who don’t believe in their approach to "national security" are unrealistic hippies and have their heads in the sands. Unfortunately, they’ve been blind these past several years that the policies they’ve been supporting are failures and have not kept us safer after all. But they know if you’re scared enough, you’ll do anything – including voting for a shameless politician who owes his entire Presidential campaign and revived career to the horrible events of 9/11.

April 27, 2007

Bill Barnwell [send him mail] is a pastor and writer from Michigan. He holds both a Master of Ministry degree and a Master of Arts in Theological Studies degree from Bethel College in Mishawaka, Indiana. Visit his blog. Bill is also a Mortgage Consultant and Loan Originator who can serve clients throughout the country.

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